http://dunyanews.tv – NEW YORK (AFP) – December 19th, 2015 – The dollar weakened Friday, losing ground against the yen after the Bank of Japan s unexpected tweak of its monetary stimulus program.
The Japanese central bank jolted markets with a new scheme supporting companies actively investing in the world s number-three economy, stoking a brief surge in the Nikkei benchmark stock index and the dollar.
Wrapping up their last meeting of the year, central bank policymakers added a new plan to boost their holdings in firms dedicated to capital investment and hiring.
But they left a vast 80 trillion yen ($654 billion) annual asset-buying program unchanged.
The yen dropped on the news but swiftly recovered.
“The near-immediate reversal that followed appeared to reflect markets realization that the annual monetary base expansion target was left unchanged at 80 trillion yen, meaning the overall size of stimulus was left unchanged,” said Ilya Spivak, currency strategist at DailyFX.
The dollar bought 121.26 yen around 2200 GMT, down from 122.60 yen at the same time Thursday.
Overall, the dollar slipped back against other major currencies as the push from the Federal Reserve s historic interest rate hike after nearly a decade Wednesday faded somewhat.
“With only two weeks to go before the end of the year we can safely say that 2015 has been a banner year for the US dollar,” said Kathy Lien of BK Asset Management.
“The Federal Reserve breathed new life into the greenback this past week and now we look forward to further gains in 2016,” she said.